Mobile terminals are an important part in an entire mobile network system. With Device Management (DM), data is downloaded from the network to a terminal device via an Over The Air (OTA) mechanism and the terminal device reads the downloaded data and further completes subsequent installation and configuration of the software components. Meanwhile, service information required by the user and function information of the terminal device are transferred from the terminal device to the DM server automatically. Thus, a Device Management System (DMS) provides a cost-effective solution for maintaining and managing data in a terminal device, including setting initial configuration information of a terminal device, installing and updating permanent information on the terminal device, and extracting management information from the terminal device, as well as processing different types of event and alarm information generated by the terminal device.
A DMS is now able to download, install and remove software components for a terminal device. The following describes how a software component is downloaded and installed to illustrate the technical solution of the conventional art.
In the conventional art, a Software Component Management Object (SCOMO) is stored in the management tree of a terminal device. A DM server delivers an Exec command to an executable node in the SCOMO to manage software components.
FIG. 1 shows a partial structure of a SCOMO in the conventional art. The download and installation process includes: the DM server downloads a software component by operating on the Download subtree and the Delivered subtree of the SCOMO; after the terminal downloads the component, the DM server delivers an Exec command to the executable node of the SCOMO; the terminal device executes the command to install the software component. The node that receives the Exec command is an Install node or an Install Inactive node in the Delivered subtree. After the installation is complete, the terminal reports the installation result to the DM server. If the reporting mode is asynchronous, the terminal reports the installation result by sending a Generic Alert. The information reported includes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the installed software component. If the reporting mode is synchronous, the terminal reports the execution result code of the Exec command via a Status command corresponding to the Exec command.
However, the conventional DM solution for downloading and installing a software component is subject to the following defects:
1. In the process of installing and managing a software component, parameters are not supported so that the operation may fail. For example, the installation of a software component may require information such as a serial number; or personalized management is not supported to meet various user requirements.
2. After the installation is complete, due to the lack of an access control right assignment method for the installed component object, the security level may be degraded.